Landlord didnt protect deposit, no hot water for 5 weeks

[xan82]

I had an unfortnuate situation in a shared household of students with a landlord who didnt protect my deposit.

During the tennancy I had a number of problems, the main being a period of 5 weeks without running hot water, as well as a leak when i first moved in flooding the hall outside my room, 2 weeks with a toilet that wouldnt flush before he replaced it, a faulty intruder alarm going off randomly which the residents next door eventually got a ladder and smashed off as it was 24/7..

The tennancy was sep 07 - Jul 08.

In Dec 07 owing to the problems I informed the landlord of my intention to find more suitable accomodation.

I had no argument from the landlord other than him telling me I had to find him a new tennant due to me leaving early.

I found one, but after found out that she didnt like the property and didnt agree to the tennancy.

I refused to pay rent in my final 4 weeks as a) i wasnt there due to no running hot water, and the deposit was eqivelent of 1 months rent. Despite the fact that i had paid rent in good faith for a 5 week period where i was unable to live there aka no hot water.

Since moving out I have recieved no deposit, and have only today been able to aquire the landlords address (which was not provided on the tennancy agreement).

What are my rights as to 3x deposit? And what would be my rights as to 5 weeks rent paid in good faith, even though I refused to pay for the final 4 weeks when I wasnt actually in the property?

And where do I stand with regard to the landlord telling me I find a new tennant before moving out? section 4.3 in my tennancy states that the landlord must keep in good repair apliances for hot running water etc.. obviously he broke this and couldnt be bothered to fix it for over 5 weeks.. the fact that he lives in london, over 100 miles away from the property doesnt help his situation, but that isnt my problem to bare..

The whole tennancy was a nightmare from start to finish. As a mature student I have been renting privatly for 7 years with no problems... this landlord just didnt seem to give a damn.

Any advice would be greatly recieved.

Thanks in advance!

[simhar]

Interesting

[Smarter_Housing]

Hi Xan,

Does your university have a welfare officer you can speak with? Often they are tied to the students union and have experience of dealing with rogue landlords and will be able to point you in the right direction.

If your deposit was taken after 6 Apr 07 and it wasn't protected (you should have a deposit protection certificate if it was!) then you should be able to claim the 3* refund/penalty through the county court. It would be difficult to comment on the non-payment of rent without knowing exactly when the incident started, was first reported and what it says about time to repair faults in the tenancy agreement.

Good luck!

[xan82]

Hi Xan,

Does your university have a welfare officer you can speak with? Often they are tied to the students union and have experience of dealing with rogue landlords and will be able to point you in the right direction.

If your deposit was taken after 6 Apr 07 and it wasn't protected (you should have a deposit protection certificate if it was!) then you should be able to claim the 3* refund/penalty through the county court. It would be difficult to comment on the non-payment of rent without knowing exactly when the incident started, was first reported and what it says about time to repair faults in the tenancy agreement.

Good luck!

Yeh the uni doesnt really seem to be that much help to be honest. Im a mature student so generally their advice seems to be aimed at kids who dont know where to start.

The whole lot is due in court on the 30th of this month and all signs point to him failing to comply with deposit protection being an absolute.

Im interested to find out if the origional deposit will be refunded as well as 3x deposit penalty?

Does anyone know the answer to that one?